1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head slider incorporated within a recording medium drive such as a hard disk drive (HDD), for example. In particular, the invention relates to a head slider comprising a slider body opposing the medium-opposed surface to a recording medium and a rail defined on the medium-opposed surface of the slider body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A hard disk drive often includes a load/unload mechanism. The load/unload mechanism serves to hold a head slider at a location spaced from the surface of a magnetic recording disk when the magnetic recording disk stands still. The head slider is accordingly prevented from contacting with a lubricating agent spreading over the surface of the magnetic recording disk when the magnetic recording disk stands still.
In general, the head slider includes a rail for defining an air bearing surface on the surface of the rail. A read/write electromagnetic transducer is designed to expose the front end at the air bearing surface. The front end of the read/write electromagnetic transducer is thus opposed to the surface of the magnetic recording disk. The outflow or trailing end of the rail is located closest to the surface of the magnetic recording disk during the flight of the head slider over the magnetic recording disk. The head slider thus often suffers from attachment of the lubricating agent. Airflow generated along the rotating magnetic recording disk blows the lubricating agent toward the flying head slider, for example. This induces the attachment of the lubricating agent to the head slider. In particular, in the case where the trailing end of the rail is shifted from the trailing end of the medium-opposed surface toward the inflow or leading end of the medium-opposed surface, the lubricating agent tends to stay at a step defined between the trailing end of the rail and the medium-opposed surface. The attachment of the lubricating agent serves to disturb the stability of the flying attitude of the head slider.